The present invention relates to a weapons system including a mortar fastened to the rear end of a vehicle, such as an armored vehicle, the mortar being lowerable by means of a lifting device fastened at the rear wall of the vehicle from a traveling position to a firing position on the ground in the vicinity of the vehicle, with the mortar in the firing position being mounted in a ball joint which is connected with a bottom plate, the system further including devices operable from the vehicle interior for making lateral and elevational adjustments.
Such a weapons system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,781 where a mortar is mounted at the lower rear end of the interior of an armored vehicle, the breech of the mortar, in the travelling position, being mounted in a ball joint which is disposed on a lowerable platform and the frontal region of the mortar tube being mounted on two adjustable support arms. To lower the platform to the ground, two hydraulically operated telescopic carries are required. During the lowering process, the adjustable supports must be shifted backwards on rails disposed in the interior of the vehicle. The drawbacks of this arrangement are that an additional hydraulic assembly is required for raising and lowering the mortar, the crew is not protected during loading and the weapons systems requires a large amount of space in the vehicle. Moreover, steering in the lateral and elevational direction is complicated and time consuming because, for example, for lateral adjustment of the mortar, both support arms must be adjusted differently but simultaneously.